Manufacturers: Are You Paying 'Serious Attention' to Cybersecurity?

Who is that masked man? Well, he’s not the Long Ranger and he’s not a superhero. Nor is he your friendly neighbor dressed up for Halloween (although you might wish he was). He is your run of the mill cybercriminal, a hacker bent on infiltrating your network.

Are You Paying ‘Serious Attention’ to Cybersecurity?

If the answer is yes, we have bad news for you. ‘Serious attention’ is no longer enough! Because as more and more manufacturing companies are taking their plant technology online, they’re also becoming more and more vulnerable to cyber attacks. That’s why it’s time to go beyond ‘serious attention’ to executing an actual cybersecurity program.

You need to batten down the hatches and plug the holes in your network.

Research has revealed that despite the increase of cyber attacks on manufacturing companies, 50% of manufacturers are not increasing their investment in cybersecurity and 56% of small manufacturing companies are not planning to increase that investment. Only 36% have an incident response plan in place. And while those figures were compiled for the UK and EU, the statistics for U.S. manufacturers are very similar.

What about you?

According to the US National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS), cyber attacks targeting manufacturing increased significantly in 2017. Their report also indicates that:

The average cost of a data breach is between $1 million and $3 million

“Most manufacturing systems today were made to be productive – they were not made to be secure.”

According to Rebecca Taylor, senior vice president for NCMS: “Every manufacturer is at risk – it isn’t a matter of if they will be targeted, it’s a matter of when.”

We can help!

Strategic Systems Group (SSG) has been a leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) application and information systems consulting firm for manufacturers since 1991. We understand the INs and OUTs of your network systems and plant operations. Consequently, we have detailed insights into your security vulnerabilities and how to shore them up.

One important lesson we’ve learned over the past 27 years is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you wait until you’re hacked, it’s already too late and far more costly than the investment would have been for implementing needed security measures to begin with.

Don’t be held hostage by cybercriminals! Contact us today. Call SSG at 310.539.4645 or email us at info@ssgnet.com.